Walking with God

Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him (Gen. 5:38).

If we walk toward God during our lives, God is also walking toward us.  There comes a point where the two meet.  God begins to walk with us, and we begin to walk with Him.  Scripture tells us that before the fall, God walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the evening.  And, after the resurrection, Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, unfolding to them the mysteries of Scripture as they went. 

I would say that the Old Testament was a period of men walking toward God, as the Jews observed the rituals given to them for leading lives of purification, not "going their own way," as Scripture puts it.  And for the individual, our lives also have a direction---we are walking toward Him as we grow up, observing the rituals and commandments we have been given.  But unknown to us, God has also been walking toward us all the time.  Finally, as at Pentecost in the history of salvation, there comes a moment in our lives when the Spirit is given to us, and from that moment on, we begin to walk with God in the Spirit.

We may not be able to pinpoint that "moment" in time, as it may not be as dramatic as the Pentecost event, but we recognize that something has shifted in our lives.  No longer are we "trying to observe the law," but we are communing with God, as did Abraham on his journey.  He does not know where he is going, but he knows that God is with him.  He finds himself in strange situations, (i.e. Sarah taken into the harem of Pharoah), but recognizes the hand of God who delivers him and sets him on high in each situation.  By the time he is settled in the Promised Land, he is able not only to walk with God, but to stand with God and discuss the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. 

The journey begins simply, by walking toward God. But the initiative is God's, and one day we realize that something has changed in the relationship, and we are now walking with him.  It is not unlike our custom of courtship and marriage, where two people first walk toward one another, and then with one another through the rest of their lives.